#IMWAYR November 9, 2015

#IMWAYR time has come again. I feel almost as though I am visiting old friends as I read through their blogs and find out what they have been up to.  You are welcome to join the celebration. Just check out the links at Jen at Mentor text and Kellee and Rickie from Unleasing Readers. I feel obligated to warn you that this can become habit forming and very expensive!

The best thing about last week was that I found my missing library books! I also read many amazing books. I loved one so much I actually found time to blog about it. I abandoned one, but more about that later on.

PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

Ballet Cat by Bob Shea

I'm very late to this party, but boy am I glad I showed up. This story of a self absorbed cat who learns what is truly important charmed the heck out of me this week. 

4 stars

Maple by Lori Nichols

I adored the illustrations in this book and I adored Maple. I think I would have liked to have had a girl like her for a daughter. Next week I'm reading Maple and Willow. 

3 stars

Counting Crows by Kathi Appelt & Rob Dunlavey (Illustrator)

I love the illustrations in this book. They are truly stunning. I just had problems with the rhyming text. It seemed like I was just getting into a rhythm and then it changed. That aside, this is a lovely book for young children learning beginning math concepts.

4 stars

Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Eve Bunting & Stephen Gammell (Illustrator)

I would read this book to older students. 

The Dark and Terrible Things come to the forest and begin by taking away the birds. They return time and again to take away another group. No one tries to stop them until eventually, there is only one small rabbit who managed to hide from them.
This would make an ideal starting point for talking to students about the holocaust and other attempts at genocide.

INFORMATION BOOKS

4 stars

I Am Amelia Earhart (Ordinary People Change the World) by Brad Meltzer & Christopher Eliopoulos (Illustrator)

Because I trusted those of you who lauded their quality, I've purchased a few books from this series. Last week as I was setting this one on display I finally got around to reading one. I am most thankful for your reviews! I was charmed and impressed by this easy to read biography of a woman who has long captured my imagination. I can't wait to book talk it to students at our assembly this week. 

CHAPTER BOOKS

5 stars

Soapstone Signs by Jeff Pinkney and Darlene Gait (Illustrator)

I can't remember ever being so impressed by the quality of writing in an early chapter book. These books from the Orca Echoes series are at about a grade two reading level and written to be of interest to students who are from 7 to 9 years old. An interesting note is that we never learn the name of the young Cree boy who carves a number of different animals over the course of one year. I appreciate this opportunity to visit with him in his world and noticed that while there are many similarities, there are also many differences between his life and ours. Darlene Gait's illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to this magical book. 

NOVELS

4 stars

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne & Michael Maloney (Narrator)

Because it is November and Remembrance Day is coming up, I decided it was time to get around to reading this book that I have had on my radar for ages, but never got around to.  

I listened to it and was completely and totally absorbed in the story. I got my first sense of foreboding when Bruno's father, the Commandant of Auschwitz,  shaves his head because of lice.  Then when he heads off into the camp with Shmuel, I knew what was coming next, and I couldn't listen any more. I abandoned listening, but think I might have a go at reading the rest of the book with my eyes.

While this book gripped me, I have to admit that at times I struggled with the innocence of Bruno. I really have a hard time accepting that he wouldn't have more of an understanding of what was going on on the other side of the fence. 

4 stars

The Unseen Guest (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place #3) by Maryrose Wood  & Katherine Kellgren (Narrator)

I needed the light heartedness and tomfoolery of Ashton Place after spending time at Auschwitz. I always enjoy visiting with the three Incorrigible children and Miss Penelope Lumley, their governess. This adventure includes an escaped ostrich, a camping trip into the wilds, rides on the back of wolves, and a seance. More mysteries and questions about the inhabitants of Ashton Place and Miss Lumley are opened than are resolved. 

CURRENTLY

I'm listening to Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede and reading Finding Ruby Starling by Karen Rivers. 

UP NEXT

Our How to tell a Story kit finally arrived. I'm looking forward to reading more about how it works in the next week or so. 

Other than than, I'm not sure, but it will be from our book club books...

Soapstone Signs by Jeff Pinkney and Darlene Gait (Illustrator)

Soapstone Signs, from the Orca Echoes series, is one of our book club books this year.

I predict it will be a favourite.

It is so beautifully written it enchanted me. Pinkney's background in poetry is obvious. I don't usually feel this way about about a chapter book, but honestly, Pinkney's use of language is so lyrical I was forced to stop and reread sections.

The book tells the story of a young cree boy who lives in the James Bay area. Every spring his family is visited by a master carver, Lindy, who sells his carvings at their lodge. 

"Lindy has a place he likes to sit by the riverbank. I like to sit with him and watch him carve. Sometimes he hands me what he has been working on. I look and then hand it back without saying a word. Really, that is saying a lot."

This spring, Lindy gives the boy four pieces of soapstone to carve. The boy wants to know what to carve and is told, "You ask the stone, ... Whatever it is going to be, it is already there." The conversation continues, and the boy learns that you have to wait for a sign, and that "a sign can be anyway that the world gives you a message. Signs come to you when your thoughts mix with your senses."

The boy's first sign comes in a dream and he carves a polar bear. Then we  follow him through the ensuing year as he finds signs in many different places. In the summer he travels by canoe with his mother on a berry picking expedition. In the fall he joins the hunters shooting geese for the first time. Come winter there is hockey and life in a frozen world.

The boy's encounter with a young beluga whale and making eye contact is another one of these sections where I found myself delighted by the images Pinkney's words convey.

"Little Wapameg gets close enough to brush the side of our canoe. Then the whale rolls slightly sideways so that one eye breaks the surface and looks up. Right up at me!

Little Wapameg's eye is big, wet and round. The colour is a deep gray, nearly black, shimmering like a mirror and bottomless too. The eye shines like a polished carving stone. I feel Little Wapameg look at me and it's as if we are sharing all the wonder from inside both of us. I feel still and calm. "

Darlene Gait's illustrations capture the essence of this story, enhance the magic of the beautiful text and transport readers into the the boy's world and his way of living in it. 

I can't wait to hear what my young book club members have to say about it. 

#IMWAYR NOVEMBER 2, 2015

I'm so happy when it's Monday, a time when bloggers write about what they have been reading during the past week.  Jen at Mentor text and Kellee and Rickie from Unleasing Readers are our amazing hosts for this event. Check out their links to find out who is at this party and discover new book ideas you for yourself!

I just haven't been reading much this week because I'm just so busy. I've stayed late at work three days and stayed overnight on Wednesday night with my mom. At home all I've had energy to do is crash in front of the TV and watch netflix. I been binging on a series called The Bridge. Let me tell you that it isn't easy to knit and read subtitles at the same time. I am now hooked on Call the Midwife.

My school book club starts this week so I've been working to get that all organized and together. I've come to the realization that as soon as I say to myself that I must read these book club books, I feel the resistance rising. I read as part of my job, but there is something about having to read books I haven't chosen that brings on the need to do anything else but read. I need to get to them so I can have meaningful conversations with kids, but there is something about it that sucks the joy out of my reading life.

I've started small and read most, if not all of the picture books over the past while. I'm starting on the chapter books now. Thankfully I've already read a few of the novels.

PICTURE BOOKS

5 stars

A Bug In a Vacuum by Mélanie Watt

The highlight of my reading life was this book. Mélanie Watt is just brilliant! In fact, I read it at least three times. The first was just to appreciate the big idea. In the second go round I savored the illustrations more fully.  The third time I appreciated the humor. I can't believe I didn't already know that Mélanie Watt is a Canadian author!

  

Dracula's Cat by Jan Wahl

4 stars

I can't remember how many times I've read this book. I collected about 15 classic Halloween picture books for work with a couple of grade 4/5 classrooms this week. We are planning to create book trailers, and each group's job was to read their book and identify the story elements they would need before continuing on. One of the classroom teachers and I read this title and then modeled the conversation for what we were looking for. This is a great little book for teaching so many basic parts of literature. Dracula's plan to frighten an old woman are told from the point of view of his cat. There are numerous attempts before he gives up and goes home. It has a clear beginning, middle and ending. I couldn't find a cover image on the internet, so I'll have to add one later when I am at work and can scan one. 

CHAPTER BOOKS

4 stars

Bagels Come Home! by Joan Betty Stuchner & Dave Whamond (Illustrator)

This is one of the chapter books from book club. It is a delightful tale of a family that gets a dog from the shelter. Bagels, (the other pets are Creamcheese, the cat, and Lox, the fish), seems to be untrainable and ends up getting kicked out of dog school. On top of this, he has an uncanny ability to escape from their locked house and wreck havoc on the neighbourhood.

NOVELS

  

4 stars

Another Day by David Levithan

I didn't like this book as much as the first one, but I did appreciate reading Rhiannon's perspective on her relationship with A. One of the best things about these books is how it forces the reader to look at the world from so many different perspectives. In this one I came to appreciate Rhiannon's understanding of relationships. I had forgotten how the book ended so it was interesting to revisit it from Rhiannon's perspective. I think I liked A's decision better than R's. 

CURRENTLY

I'm listening to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. I've started reading Finding Ruby Starling by Karen Rivers since it is on my must read in 2015 list, and it is also one of our book club choices!